Storm, Earth, and Fire - 1 spirit causes Monk and spirit to deal 70% of the Monk's normal damage, down from 75%. 2 spirits causes Monk and spirits to deal 55% of the Monk's normal damage, down from 60%.

Magnetic Crush Magnetic forces weigh on enemies in the area, inflicting 27,50030,000 Physical damage every 1 sec and pulling them closer to the Electromagnet. Instant.

Matter Scramble Highlights several locations on the ground which will scramble the locations of players standing inside them. If the Golem attempts to scramble a location with no players, the fabric of space tears, inflicting 300,000 Fire damage to players within 3090 yards. 2 sec cast. 5 sec cooldown.

Matter Scramble Highlights several locations on the ground which will scramble the locations of players standing inside them. If the Golem attempts to scramble a location with no players, the fabric of space tears, inflicting 300,000 Fire damage to players within 30 yards. Unlimited range. Instant.90 yards. Unlimited range. Instant.

Feral: Treant summoned by the Feral version of this talent now deals less melee damage, but will cast Rake and Entangling Roots on their target instead of Bash.

Nature’s Vigil when activated now increases all damage and healing done by 12% (up from 10%), and causes single-target healing spells to trigger an additional heal on a nearby ally for 25% of the amount healed. This is in addition to the existing effect where it damages a nearby enemy target for 25% of the healing done.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Glyph of Nature’s Grasp now reduces the cooldown of Nature’s Grasp by 45 seconds (up from 30 seconds).

Guardian of the Ancient Kings (Holy) now has a cooldown of 3 minutes (down from 5 minutes), and summons a guardian that heals the ally that the Paladin healed for 100% (up from 10%) of the amount healed, but no longer heals nearby friendly targets. deals additional healing based on any heal cast by the Paladin for the 15 seconds for the duration of the spell.

Players who have learned the first recipe in each of “the ways” can discover a questline that starts on the Timeless Isle: “Noodle Secrets Long Forgotten.” Heroes will search for a long-lost pandaren recipe allowing them to build and run their own noodle cart. The all-new questline will revisit some old zones and dungeons, culminating in a solo scenario with a unique time-management mini-game.

The noodle cart allows a player to set themselves up as a vendor and distribute powerful noodle soups to their faction.

Enchanting

Items formerly obtained with Valor Points that now cost Justice Points as well as gear crafted from new PvP recipes or plans will now disenchant into Sha Crystal Fragments, a new Enchanting reagent.

Raid Testing Schedule - August 28

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

On Wednesday, August 28, we will continue testing raid encounters in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Public Test Realms.

Wednesday, August 28

Sha of Pride - 25 Player Heroic - 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST)

Malkorok - 25 Player Heroic - 13:30 PDT (16:30 EDT, 22:30 CEST)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Item Level Squish
Fair enough. How about we compromise and still do the squish, but - hear me out - but allow you to still do 100% of your damage?

Is there a technical reason for a squish or is it just because some developers don't like big numbers?
I hear that it's actually approaching some database integer limitation, but I don't know anything about it so I couldn't offer much insight. Aside from that though if I do 183468312 damage or 18346831 those numbers are just difficult to tell apart during combat. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Reducing Ability Bloat
Reducing ability bloat is something that's been talked about fairly recently in interviews and tweeters, it's also something we've attempted to address as recently as this expansion. It's a balance, of course, between having depth of complexity through abilities without making the complexity just a ton of different buttons to push. There's also perception issues of taking away abilities, even if they're never used, as undermining the viability or versatility of a class. Classes are largely defined by their abilities, so taking things away can be a touchy subject. It's something that we will need to give another go at addressing, because classes getting new abilities as level caps raise is essentially a given. In any case we tend to save these kinds of big sweeping changes for expansions.

STOP DUMBING DOWN THE GAME.
Having tons of different buttons to push doesn't make you smart or good at the game. Having fewer buttons doesn't make you dumb or worse at the game. A literal comparison of # of abilities to # of abilities is not a valid comparison for depth of play or complexity that a skillful player can use.

If you have 30 buttons and your rotation is to push each button in order from 1->30, is that a smart game? Can you as a skillful and smart player press those buttons from 1->30 better than a worse player? Now what about if you have 5 buttons that require situational awareness, combo off each other, and a skilled player can achieve let's say a ~10% DPS gain over someone else using those same 5 buttons just by making smart decisions of when to press them.

What's your opinion now on what number of abilities means to making combat complex, smart, or skillful? Do fewer skills actually mean a "dumber" game? Does more of something just seem better? Is context of mechanics/gameplay/skill trumped by counting how many of something there is? (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

World of Warcraft and NostalgiaHave you ever considered that some people may have genuinely enjoyed vanilla?
I have no doubt that there are people out there who remember Vanilla World of Warcraft for how it really was, who can list all Vanilla gameplay systems and features in exact detail, and who still prefer the game as it was back then despite all the progress and additions that have happened since. These people would certainly enjoy playing the Vanilla game if they could, and I can understand if it is frustrating for these people to be placed into the same group as those people who actually are nostalgic.

The thing is though, that there are a lot more people who are nostalgic than people who are not. Those people who are nostalgic have some great memories of fun times they had back when the game was new and when they were playing with their first characters in their first guilds. But often these people are treasuring their good memories, while at the same time forgetting (or downplaying) the not so great things from back then. If they could play Vanilla today, they would most likely not find the same level of fun they had back when they were new to the game, and they would most likely be annoyed by the lack of many of the quality-of-life improvements that have been added to the game since then.

Whether or not people are nostalgic is certainly something that there are a lot of different opinions on, and we fully acknowledge and appreciate that. That being said however (and I know this may come across as being harsh or dismissing to some), the developers have the final word in the end. Their preference currently is to keep the game moving forward, and this means that their philosophy is to keep evolving and expanding the World of Warcraft universe - supporting old versions of the game does not fit well with that philosophy. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The Hearthstone European Closed Beta Test is Nearly Here!

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker)

Following the exciting showing at gamescom in Cologne, Germany, the Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft team has an announcement to make—the European closed beta test is nearly here!

In a few weeks, assuming all the cards have been properly shuffled, the murlocs have all been corralled, and the mana crystals have all been polished, we’ll start inviting players who’ve opted in to start playing. Exciting times!

We’re really looking forward to you all getting a chance to check out this game, and we think everyone’s going to enjoy it—whether you love card games or have never played them before.

There’s still time to sign up, so don’t delay! Once the EU closed beta test starts, we’ll begin working through the list of everyone who’s signed up, letting in a few groups at a time, so please be patient if you don’t get in straight away. Those murloc minions take a while to enter Battle.net addresses. Once you’ve been checked off the list, you’ll receive an email with instructions on how to download the game and start playing. Happy dueling!

Really?? You hardly use this talent in raids, and when you do, you don't need to use it quickly in succession, what is the logic behind this? Sure I understand it's used in PvP alot, why don't they put that 4pc bonus on pvp gear? Such a waste of 4pc bonus, looks like most locks only need 2pc set now

I guess your not raiding any heroics such as Lei Shen or dark animus then.

Having to hardcast a 2.5s healing spell (excluding instants every 1 minute) for an eclipse damage bonus is.. really meh imo. I'm still sticking to Heart of the Wild for tranquility on steroids or crazy movement phases like durumu.

Class Armor
Rogue Tier-15 4-piece set bonus now causes Shadow Blades to reduce the cost of all abilities by 15% (down from 40%).

Seriously? They're going to wait until the PTR for the next flipping patch to nerf the set bonus to Shadow Blades? I would just LOVE to hear the reasoning behind this, which will be a huge nerf to the rogues in my guild. I don't think for one second it's fair for the other PTR nerf/unnerf cycle pawns like Assassin's resolve to "make up" for this. Those came after the fact in the first place!

Seriously? They're going to wait until the PTR for the next flipping patch to nerf the set bonus to Shadow Blades? I would just LOVE to hear the reasoning behind this, which will be a huge nerf to the rogues in my guild. I don't think for one second it's fair for the other PTR nerf/unnerf cycle pawns like Assassin's resolve to "make up" for this. Those came after the fact in the first place!

Blarg. Magellann mad.

The reason was people were using T15 over T16 because it's just so incredible. Through all of the PTR testing I was using it with the set helm and just destroying, pair that with the CD reducing trinket and you've got some insane damage. It's just stupid though because it puts rogues in an awful place when SoO launches, that's a big nerf until we replace gear.